America Was Not Founded Upon Christianity

My son, who's presently working in Bagdad, sent me a good, honest article, refuting the false notion that America was founded by Christians upon Christian precepts - of which I agree with (and already knew perfectly well).



Great quotes by Ben Franklin: "I believe in one God, Creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped." and "As for Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see."



Of course these were very scientific men from the "age of Enlightenment" and they did not generally believe in the divinity of Jesus or the miracles in the Bible. In the normal sense of the word they were not "Christians", but they were educated men who believed generally in a life after death and a supreme being who created the universe.



Even Voltaire concludes, "Well, to what dogma do all minds agree? To the worship of a God, and to honesty. All the philosophers of the world who have had a religion have said in all ages: 'There is a God, and one must be just.'"



George Bush probably is a true believer of the more fundamentalist versions of Christianity, but I think he is mindfully just as he seeks freedoms for "muslims, infidels, christians, and jews" like the founding fathers themselves did.



I think Bush might agree hand-in-hand with Jefferson who gave his reason for going to church as, "...no nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I as chief Magistrate of this nation am bound to give it the sanction of my example."



(I thought it most interesting to find though that the "Under God" in the pledge of allegience wasn't implemented till the McCarthy era of the '50s.)



Thanks for the article, Brandon.